A BUSY road was blocked for three hours after a tanker broke free from its cab and slithered across the carriageway.

Miraculously no-one was hurt and no vehicles were damaged after the empty trailer - usually transporting agricultural waste - somehow managed to unhinge itself and roll across the width of Moss Road at peak traffic time.

Two minutes earlier a mother and her two small children were seen at the very spot the tanker ended up at during peak morning traffic.

Impatient motorists resorted to sneaking their cars over pavements around the massive obstacle.

Bosses at Effluent Services Ltd, baffled by how the incident had occurred, had to use a tractor to shift the trailer which landed awkwardly across the road.

The drama was compounded by the fact that police allegedly refused to accept the incident was an emergency - and didn't turn up until after it had been sorted out.

One resident Kevin Brough, 31, said: "Cars were having to drive all over the pavement, it was chaos.

"Two minutes before the trailer rolled past the gate there was a car parked opposite, and a woman was dropping two little kids off.

"There could so easily have been a serious accident."

Effluent Services then sent out a stacker truck to collect the rogue trailer, while motorists snaked over the pavement.

Kevin said: "We all thought it was dangerous, but the police actually ticked me off about dialling 999.

"But if they had got here within minutes - instead of three hours after the call - then they would have seen just how bad it was."

The company would not talk about the accident at 8.20am on August 22, but their PR firm said the trailer came off an articulated lorry as it left the depot.

The spokesman said: "Accidents do happen. The tanker was empty, no-one was injured and there was no damage to property.

"It was moved back to the yard as quickly as possible."

He added that a full investigation into the incident was being carried out.

A police spokesman said they were looking into Mr Brough's complaint but were unable to respond at the time of writing.